6 ms·

The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

103 points by designhacker 14y ago

pazimzadeh 14y ago
I mostly agree with you; however, you do realize that your blog is called "Funtrepreneur," right?
- jack-r-abbit 14y ago
  I don't see a problem with the name of his blog... putting the fun in entrepreneur. It does appear to be the first post but maybe I'm not familiar with how Tumblr works.
- mjn 14y ago
  If funtrepreneurship doesn't work out, there's always the more time-tested consulting version, the funsultant. Or, when all other options fail, the default, funemployment... (Yes, these are all actual words people use, though for different things. Punning on "fun" seems irresistible. With apologies for the self-link, more on the 2nd one: http://www.kmjn.org/notes/funsultants_and_gamification.html http://www.kmjn.org/notes/funsultants_and_gamification.html)
dm8 14y ago
Another issue I see is people are not afraid at all due to easy availability of capital. Although, entrepreneur can be considered as fearless (at least when it comes to failure). But he/she always lives in fear. Be it competitors, running out of money, employees quitting, not able to hire, etc. At least, I live in fear all the time.
AVTizzle 14y ago
There's a subtle, rather meta feeling I can't shake when I read "cautionary" blog posts like these. It's the feeling that maybe the author isn't writing it for anyone else's benefit as much as their own. Like the author writes to reinforce that, unlike said "friend" who's making all these cautionary mistakes, they themselves are in it for all the right reasons. Every time the author makes a, "he" statement, you can just perceive a subtle, "but not me." The faintest signal for both the reader, and for himself. Here's what I read: - "I let a long sigh." (Because I know better). - "My friend wasn’t someone I’d call 'entrepreneurial'" (...but I am). - "He wasn’t doing it because he enjoyed the process of starting and growing a company." (But I am). - "But building a company requires a lot more than writing code." (All things I'm far more capable of). - "He’s lived in Silicon Valley long enough, and that’s what people around him are doing." (Me? I'm an island). Who is the author to make this judgement? Why do you need to fit some mold in order to participate in the exclusive club, without criticism from the author? And who gets to determine what that mold is?
- frisco 14y ago
  I agree with you that it's not for anyone, other than the man in the arena, to determine whether someone belongs in a startup or not. At the same time, I strongly agree with the observations made by OP. The social pressure is strong in the valley: all people talk about are startups. Its perceived to be easy to work for a year or two with a couple smart friends and get bought by Facebook or Google. Zuck bragged at SUS two years ago that (a) every CEO they'd acquired was still working at Facebook and (b) they'd shut down every product they'd acquired. Many people aren't "in it" to build great companies. That's just how Silicon Valley works. On the other hand, many of the best companies are highly product focused and driven by a desire to do something more. Most people on both ends of the spectrum will fail. Perhaps this is correlated to the underlying motivations, but I don't think anyone has data on that (probably because it's ill-defined). It may be wrong to moralize about this dichotomy, but it's certainly there.
  - AVTizzle 14y ago
    Of course it's there. We're human - we're all subject to circumstance and surroundings. We can't say with certainty that we would be doing tech startups if we were born in another time or another place (ie your lack of data - I agree). So where do you draw the line? The issue I take with this type of writing is that, at best, it's pointless. And at its worst, it's desctuctive. Pointless - It's not fact based. It presents no new, compelling ideas. It's not helpful for practical purposes, or optimistic for inspirational ones. What's the point? Why was it written? (For the authors sake, I think.) Destructive - It draws lines and separates classes, the higher of which the author subtly places himself in while condescending the hopeless "friend". Where would we be on our own startup journeys if our "friends" were so (not) supportive? And this, by the way, is where someone gets to call me and my comments out for being super hypocritical ;) </irony>
    - lusr 14y ago
      I completely agree. It feels like intellectualization - a subconscious defence of personal choices made out to look like fact. I see this in everyday life all the time, and I daresay the root of it is an irrational subconscious fear that the person being criticized (here, the friend) may succeed, and what that potential success implies about the speaker. In this case, if the friend follows their "me too" path and "succeeds", the author's beliefs about the "right" path would be shown to be unfounded. Of course at this point the author has invested, as stated in the post, five years of time and energy on this path and is unsurprisingly going to be reluctant to admit there may have been another path that could have taken him to the same destination with a lower time and energy investment. Instead, the author intellectualizes and rationalizes his choices to prevent acknowledging the uncomfortable truth. There's a mentally healthier way of dealing with this: acknowledge there are multiple paths, and acknowledge that destinations are multi-variate. For example, what does the friend want as a destination, just money? Maybe the author wants something more - experience, satisfaction of starting their own business, etc. It's dysfunctional to suggest the friend should choose the same destination as the author; once this is accepted, you can happily get on with your choice of path and not worry that others have made different choices. Occasionally, of course, you will find somebody has arrived at the same destination you desire with less time and energy -- at that point, set aside your ego and learn from them!
nateberkopec 14y ago
Minor observation - the last line about YCombinator being "the best place to start a company" seemed a little weird. As a percentage, how many of the recent "startup success stories" have been started at YCombinator and how many haven't?
chpolk 14y ago
I definitely agree, it is a lot easier to fill out an application than to rally around an idea and begin creating a great product. I think it's definitely worth doing some self examination before deciding you are ready to do a startup and understanding the reality of your situation.
jack-r-abbit 14y ago
I've been thinking the same things lately. Referring to what ever coding project happens to be filling your spare time as your "start up" seems to be what all the cool kids are doing these days.
angersock 14y ago
Regardless of the strengths or weaknesses of this article, the scansion of his/her opening poetry bothers me. In the spirit of hacking, I've tried to improve it (and please help me if I've done this wrong or poorly!): Twas the Y-Comb deadline eve, when all through the valley All the hackers were stirring (it's a big night for Cali!). Scores of applications were POST'ed with care In hopes they'd be found by Paul Graham to be fair. And many a partner slumbered softly in bed, while visions of A-rounds flooded their SO's heads. Quite out of the blue my iPhone did ring: an old friend to a bar for a convo I'd bring!
squarecat 14y ago
Aaaand cue "Sexist!" outcries...
- squarecat 14y ago
  Really?? Doesn't "...And a few girlfriends slept alone in their beds, While visions of exits danced in their boyfriends’ heads..." operate on the same presumption that has resulted in a number of others getting their asses handed to them recently?
  - jack-r-abbit 14y ago
    Can't we just be glad that we're no longer looked at as "dorky programmers that can't even get a mate" and just move on? Why kick the hornet's nest?
    - rainbow 14y ago
      Because your 'we' in this case assumes your reader is male. Again.
      - jack-r-abbit 14y ago
        Well... I said "mate" for a reason. I didn't assume anything. But not everything can be written with those generic s/he or his/her notation. Sometimes... it just looks stupid. Sometimes a gender must be picked... and it will always be wrong to someone. Why does it have to be an issue all the time? Why do we have to assume that every time a person writes anything and they decide that a character is a male then the writer is sexist? Besides... the poem said "a few girlfriends...". I am quite sure that this is a very accurate statement. Of the "Thousands of applications" that were submitted I imagine that enough of them were from men that a few of them had girlfriends that slept alone that night. Why does it have to be taken to the extreme and interpreted as "all these women sleeping away as all the men (and only the men) go off to start companies and get rich"?
        14y ago
MisterBastahrd 14y ago
Everytime I read a post like this, all I hear is "please don't compete with me."
aydoubleyou 14y ago
San Francisco in a nutshell.
gravitronic 14y ago
Some advice I try to live by is to ignore others and just do "you". So, don't worry about whether or not your friend is starting a business for the right reasons. He'll figure it out. Your productivity will increase when you focus on your own goals instead of others.
AdamFernandez 14y ago
I don't know if the author was trying to express this particular sentiment, but I am concerned by a general theme that I have noticed in articles I have been reading on HN lately. 1. We are in a bubble, because all these 'useless' startups are getting funding when they should not be (debatable on many levels). 2. Too many startups are focusing on areas that are over like 'Social'. 3. Some people just aren't good enough or cut out for this, so they should avoid it, and let the ones with a specific set of 'opinions' create startups. My advise to anyone also sensing this theme and turning away from creating a startup is this: Do it for whatever reason you want! If you want to make a great product, and love hacking, awesome! Go for it! If you want to get rich and jump in, awesome! Go for it! There are no guarantees in life about whether anyone will succeed, but there is also not infinite time to wonder what might have been. Even if 90% of these ventures fail, there will still be more great products and opportunities for everyone. Because that crazy 10% wasn't deterred by someone else telling them what should and shouldn't be. Cautionary tales help to educate, but don't be discouraged by anyone if you really want to do it.
- EricDeb 14y ago
  This is absolutely true. People are prone to think that if you start a company and it is "for the wrong reasons," three years later you will be bankrupt and want to kill yourself. Likely, if you start a company for the wrong reasons, you will find out very quickly and will quit within a couple months. You will pursue more standard forms of employment and be FAR happier about it. I say, if you want to start a company for whatever reason... do it!
- tomkin 14y ago
  > Too many startups are focusing on areas that are over like 'Social'. See, I like to think of a startup as any other brick and mortar business. If it manages to leap into a world-wide success, nothing wrong with that - but don't expect it. Have a game plan that focuses on the reality around you. A startup isn't always a Facebook or Instagram (although they were too, at a point). It's okay to build an online business and just make $60-120 k/year - you know, like any other B&M business owner. To me a "startup" is simply described as a scaleable model that employs technology intelligently with modern-day principals of delegation, pivoting & management. I always get confused about exit strategy. To some it means here's what happens when/if I bail.... To others it seems to mean this is where I'll be a billionaire and.... Both are bunk to someone who is passionately building a product or service that they love.
larrys 14y ago
"- But why do you want to get into YC? - Are you kidding? It’s an awesome opportunity: you get to mingle with smart people, work on something exciting, get funding and mentorship, investors will chase you to give you money, and you’re much more likely get acquired in the future. - That’s not what I meant. I know YC is a great place. But why do YOU want to get in?" "why do YOU want to get in?" The question was answered.
- shantanubala 14y ago
  Definitely. Mingling with smart people, working on something exciting, and getting mentorship are often ends in themselves and don't need any further justification.
wildmXranat 14y ago
Awesomepreneur in me says you should take that inner voice that makes you doubt because of public opinion out back and shoot it. Do what you need, to get the job done in whatever plan and stay focused. Most will fail, some will last but wounded, few will stick around and all of them will blog about it. Just focus on getting the job done, even if it's a local-centric social network for pets with sepia instagram avatars. Well, maybe I went too far, but keep focused on your own work, not others.
RedwoodCity 14y ago
Even if a startup fails helpfully everyone involved learned some lessons. I know people who have been founders or have worked in startups that didn't succeed, in-spite of that have gone on to do a variety of interesting things. Companies fail for all sorts of reasons that are often well beyond their control. Being part of such a team is hardly the kiss of death provided you can explain what you did and what you learned. You lose 100% of the games you never play. Go into it with your eyes open that more than likely you won't be the next instagram, but you will develop many skills can be broadly applied outside of starting a company. With the right attitude it doesn't matter if you strike it rich, because frequently good ideas(supersonic air travel, concord ) lose and a lot of seemingly bad ideas have made people wealthy(pet rocks).
xarien 14y ago
Aside from all of the other possibly insulting remarks from the post, this particular one caught my eye: "And a few girlfriends slept alone in their beds While visions of exits danced in their boyfriends’ heads" I'm male, but let me tell you that the above statement infuriates me as it perpetuates the stereotype that women are not entrepreneurs. I'm sure I'm not the only one who believes that my better half would be wildly more successful than I would be if she had an inkling to do a startup. To reiterate, this form of sexism needs to stop.
- dkrich 14y ago
  > I'm male, but let me tell you that the above statement infuriates me as it perpetuates the stereotype that women are not entrepreneurs. I'm sure I'm not the only one who believes that my better half would be wildly more successful than I would be if she had an inkling to do a startup. Can you spot the irony in this statement?
  - xarien 14y ago
    There is no irony because as I stated, "I'm sure I'm not the only one." This sentence conveys that in "some" not "all" cases women make better entrepreneurs. Irony would only exist if I made a sweeping comment about all women being better as entrepreneurs, which I assure you, I did not make.
    - dkrich 14y ago
      Well I don't want to play professor here, but I don't think you understand the meaning of irony. The fact that you find fault with the implication that women aren't just as likely as men to pursue startups but then say that your girlfriend would do much better than yourself at them if "only she had the inkling to do one" is ironic. You see, you resent the implication that women don't do startups. Your girlfriend doesn't do startups and doesn't have the inclination to do them. You are using her as an example (albeit a poor one) of why that implication is false.
      - 14y ago
Quizzy 14y ago
I find nothing wrong with the "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome. I know plenty of friends who went to medical school because their parents were doctors, or it's the "Asian thing" to do, and they turned out to be decent doctors. Same for lawyers, accountants and gardners; a lot of "me too" happening outside of the startup world. Unlike 30 years ago, many more people want to go into technology because it's hip to be in a startup - hell, thanks to popular cinema (The Social Network) and mainstream technology (iOS/Android) geekie hobbies are now cool. People got mocked for playing with their Timex Sinclair in the early '80s, whereas today I have to sign up early in order to reserve my son a spot in the mobile game development bootcamp. Times are a changing, and the OP sounds like the indie college guy who's resentful that his secret band is now being followed by everybody. Other "me too" activities: marriage, children, golf, smoking, religion, tantric sex... sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. All a part of life.

103 points by designhacker 14y ago

pazimzadeh 14y ago

I mostly agree with you; however, you do realize that your blog is called "Funtrepreneur," right?

jack-r-abbit 14y ago
I don't see a problem with the name of his blog... putting the fun in entrepreneur. It does appear to be the first post but maybe I'm not familiar with how Tumblr works.
mjn 14y ago
If funtrepreneurship doesn't work out, there's always the more time-tested consulting version, the funsultant. Or, when all other options fail, the default, funemployment... (Yes, these are all actual words people use, though for different things. Punning on "fun" seems irresistible. With apologies for the self-link, more on the 2nd one: http://www.kmjn.org/notes/funsultants_and_gamification.html http://www.kmjn.org/notes/funsultants_and_gamification.html)

dm8 14y ago

Another issue I see is people are not afraid at all due to easy availability of capital. Although, entrepreneur can be considered as fearless (at least when it comes to failure). But he/she always lives in fear. Be it competitors, running out of money, employees quitting, not able to hire, etc. At least, I live in fear all the time.

AVTizzle 14y ago

There's a subtle, rather meta feeling I can't shake when I read "cautionary" blog posts like these. It's the feeling that maybe the author isn't writing it for anyone else's benefit as much as their own. Like the author writes to reinforce that, unlike said "friend" who's making all these cautionary mistakes, they themselves are in it for all the right reasons. Every time the author makes a, "he" statement, you can just perceive a subtle, "but not me." The faintest signal for both the reader, and for himself. Here's what I read: - "I let a long sigh." (Because I know better). - "My friend wasn’t someone I’d call 'entrepreneurial'" (...but I am). - "He wasn’t doing it because he enjoyed the process of starting and growing a company." (But I am). - "But building a company requires a lot more than writing code." (All things I'm far more capable of). - "He’s lived in Silicon Valley long enough, and that’s what people around him are doing." (Me? I'm an island). Who is the author to make this judgement? Why do you need to fit some mold in order to participate in the exclusive club, without criticism from the author? And who gets to determine what that mold is?

frisco 14y ago
I agree with you that it's not for anyone, other than the man in the arena, to determine whether someone belongs in a startup or not. At the same time, I strongly agree with the observations made by OP. The social pressure is strong in the valley: all people talk about are startups. Its perceived to be easy to work for a year or two with a couple smart friends and get bought by Facebook or Google. Zuck bragged at SUS two years ago that (a) every CEO they'd acquired was still working at Facebook and (b) they'd shut down every product they'd acquired. Many people aren't "in it" to build great companies. That's just how Silicon Valley works. On the other hand, many of the best companies are highly product focused and driven by a desire to do something more. Most people on both ends of the spectrum will fail. Perhaps this is correlated to the underlying motivations, but I don't think anyone has data on that (probably because it's ill-defined). It may be wrong to moralize about this dichotomy, but it's certainly there.
- AVTizzle 14y ago
  Of course it's there. We're human - we're all subject to circumstance and surroundings. We can't say with certainty that we would be doing tech startups if we were born in another time or another place (ie your lack of data - I agree). So where do you draw the line? The issue I take with this type of writing is that, at best, it's pointless. And at its worst, it's desctuctive. Pointless - It's not fact based. It presents no new, compelling ideas. It's not helpful for practical purposes, or optimistic for inspirational ones. What's the point? Why was it written? (For the authors sake, I think.) Destructive - It draws lines and separates classes, the higher of which the author subtly places himself in while condescending the hopeless "friend". Where would we be on our own startup journeys if our "friends" were so (not) supportive? And this, by the way, is where someone gets to call me and my comments out for being super hypocritical ;) </irony>
  - lusr 14y ago
    I completely agree. It feels like intellectualization - a subconscious defence of personal choices made out to look like fact. I see this in everyday life all the time, and I daresay the root of it is an irrational subconscious fear that the person being criticized (here, the friend) may succeed, and what that potential success implies about the speaker. In this case, if the friend follows their "me too" path and "succeeds", the author's beliefs about the "right" path would be shown to be unfounded. Of course at this point the author has invested, as stated in the post, five years of time and energy on this path and is unsurprisingly going to be reluctant to admit there may have been another path that could have taken him to the same destination with a lower time and energy investment. Instead, the author intellectualizes and rationalizes his choices to prevent acknowledging the uncomfortable truth. There's a mentally healthier way of dealing with this: acknowledge there are multiple paths, and acknowledge that destinations are multi-variate. For example, what does the friend want as a destination, just money? Maybe the author wants something more - experience, satisfaction of starting their own business, etc. It's dysfunctional to suggest the friend should choose the same destination as the author; once this is accepted, you can happily get on with your choice of path and not worry that others have made different choices. Occasionally, of course, you will find somebody has arrived at the same destination you desire with less time and energy -- at that point, set aside your ego and learn from them!

nateberkopec 14y ago

Minor observation - the last line about YCombinator being "the best place to start a company" seemed a little weird. As a percentage, how many of the recent "startup success stories" have been started at YCombinator and how many haven't?

chpolk 14y ago

I definitely agree, it is a lot easier to fill out an application than to rally around an idea and begin creating a great product. I think it's definitely worth doing some self examination before deciding you are ready to do a startup and understanding the reality of your situation.

jack-r-abbit 14y ago

I've been thinking the same things lately. Referring to what ever coding project happens to be filling your spare time as your "start up" seems to be what all the cool kids are doing these days.

angersock 14y ago

Regardless of the strengths or weaknesses of this article, the scansion of his/her opening poetry bothers me. In the spirit of hacking, I've tried to improve it (and please help me if I've done this wrong or poorly!): Twas the Y-Comb deadline eve, when all through the valley All the hackers were stirring (it's a big night for Cali!). Scores of applications were POST'ed with care In hopes they'd be found by Paul Graham to be fair. And many a partner slumbered softly in bed, while visions of A-rounds flooded their SO's heads. Quite out of the blue my iPhone did ring: an old friend to a bar for a convo I'd bring!

squarecat 14y ago

Aaaand cue "Sexist!" outcries...

squarecat 14y ago
Really?? Doesn't "...And a few girlfriends slept alone in their beds, While visions of exits danced in their boyfriends’ heads..." operate on the same presumption that has resulted in a number of others getting their asses handed to them recently?
- jack-r-abbit 14y ago
  Can't we just be glad that we're no longer looked at as "dorky programmers that can't even get a mate" and just move on? Why kick the hornet's nest?
  - rainbow 14y ago
    Because your 'we' in this case assumes your reader is male. Again.
    - jack-r-abbit 14y ago
      Well... I said "mate" for a reason. I didn't assume anything. But not everything can be written with those generic s/he or his/her notation. Sometimes... it just looks stupid. Sometimes a gender must be picked... and it will always be wrong to someone. Why does it have to be an issue all the time? Why do we have to assume that every time a person writes anything and they decide that a character is a male then the writer is sexist? Besides... the poem said "a few girlfriends...". I am quite sure that this is a very accurate statement. Of the "Thousands of applications" that were submitted I imagine that enough of them were from men that a few of them had girlfriends that slept alone that night. Why does it have to be taken to the extreme and interpreted as "all these women sleeping away as all the men (and only the men) go off to start companies and get rich"?
      - 14y ago

MisterBastahrd 14y ago

Everytime I read a post like this, all I hear is "please don't compete with me."

aydoubleyou 14y ago

San Francisco in a nutshell.

gravitronic 14y ago

Some advice I try to live by is to ignore others and just do "you". So, don't worry about whether or not your friend is starting a business for the right reasons. He'll figure it out. Your productivity will increase when you focus on your own goals instead of others.

AdamFernandez 14y ago

I don't know if the author was trying to express this particular sentiment, but I am concerned by a general theme that I have noticed in articles I have been reading on HN lately. 1. We are in a bubble, because all these 'useless' startups are getting funding when they should not be (debatable on many levels). 2. Too many startups are focusing on areas that are over like 'Social'. 3. Some people just aren't good enough or cut out for this, so they should avoid it, and let the ones with a specific set of 'opinions' create startups. My advise to anyone also sensing this theme and turning away from creating a startup is this: Do it for whatever reason you want! If you want to make a great product, and love hacking, awesome! Go for it! If you want to get rich and jump in, awesome! Go for it! There are no guarantees in life about whether anyone will succeed, but there is also not infinite time to wonder what might have been. Even if 90% of these ventures fail, there will still be more great products and opportunities for everyone. Because that crazy 10% wasn't deterred by someone else telling them what should and shouldn't be. Cautionary tales help to educate, but don't be discouraged by anyone if you really want to do it.

EricDeb 14y ago
This is absolutely true. People are prone to think that if you start a company and it is "for the wrong reasons," three years later you will be bankrupt and want to kill yourself. Likely, if you start a company for the wrong reasons, you will find out very quickly and will quit within a couple months. You will pursue more standard forms of employment and be FAR happier about it. I say, if you want to start a company for whatever reason... do it!
tomkin 14y ago
> Too many startups are focusing on areas that are over like 'Social'. See, I like to think of a startup as any other brick and mortar business. If it manages to leap into a world-wide success, nothing wrong with that - but don't expect it. Have a game plan that focuses on the reality around you. A startup isn't always a Facebook or Instagram (although they were too, at a point). It's okay to build an online business and just make $60-120 k/year - you know, like any other B&M business owner. To me a "startup" is simply described as a scaleable model that employs technology intelligently with modern-day principals of delegation, pivoting & management. I always get confused about exit strategy. To some it means here's what happens when/if I bail.... To others it seems to mean this is where I'll be a billionaire and.... Both are bunk to someone who is passionately building a product or service that they love.

larrys 14y ago

"- But why do you want to get into YC? - Are you kidding? It’s an awesome opportunity: you get to mingle with smart people, work on something exciting, get funding and mentorship, investors will chase you to give you money, and you’re much more likely get acquired in the future. - That’s not what I meant. I know YC is a great place. But why do YOU want to get in?" "why do YOU want to get in?" The question was answered.

shantanubala 14y ago
Definitely. Mingling with smart people, working on something exciting, and getting mentorship are often ends in themselves and don't need any further justification.

wildmXranat 14y ago

Awesomepreneur in me says you should take that inner voice that makes you doubt because of public opinion out back and shoot it. Do what you need, to get the job done in whatever plan and stay focused. Most will fail, some will last but wounded, few will stick around and all of them will blog about it. Just focus on getting the job done, even if it's a local-centric social network for pets with sepia instagram avatars. Well, maybe I went too far, but keep focused on your own work, not others.

RedwoodCity 14y ago

Even if a startup fails helpfully everyone involved learned some lessons. I know people who have been founders or have worked in startups that didn't succeed, in-spite of that have gone on to do a variety of interesting things. Companies fail for all sorts of reasons that are often well beyond their control. Being part of such a team is hardly the kiss of death provided you can explain what you did and what you learned. You lose 100% of the games you never play. Go into it with your eyes open that more than likely you won't be the next instagram, but you will develop many skills can be broadly applied outside of starting a company. With the right attitude it doesn't matter if you strike it rich, because frequently good ideas(supersonic air travel, concord ) lose and a lot of seemingly bad ideas have made people wealthy(pet rocks).

xarien 14y ago

Aside from all of the other possibly insulting remarks from the post, this particular one caught my eye: "And a few girlfriends slept alone in their beds While visions of exits danced in their boyfriends’ heads" I'm male, but let me tell you that the above statement infuriates me as it perpetuates the stereotype that women are not entrepreneurs. I'm sure I'm not the only one who believes that my better half would be wildly more successful than I would be if she had an inkling to do a startup. To reiterate, this form of sexism needs to stop.

dkrich 14y ago
> I'm male, but let me tell you that the above statement infuriates me as it perpetuates the stereotype that women are not entrepreneurs. I'm sure I'm not the only one who believes that my better half would be wildly more successful than I would be if she had an inkling to do a startup. Can you spot the irony in this statement?
- xarien 14y ago
  There is no irony because as I stated, "I'm sure I'm not the only one." This sentence conveys that in "some" not "all" cases women make better entrepreneurs. Irony would only exist if I made a sweeping comment about all women being better as entrepreneurs, which I assure you, I did not make.
  - dkrich 14y ago
    Well I don't want to play professor here, but I don't think you understand the meaning of irony. The fact that you find fault with the implication that women aren't just as likely as men to pursue startups but then say that your girlfriend would do much better than yourself at them if "only she had the inkling to do one" is ironic. You see, you resent the implication that women don't do startups. Your girlfriend doesn't do startups and doesn't have the inclination to do them. You are using her as an example (albeit a poor one) of why that implication is false.
    - 14y ago

Quizzy 14y ago

I find nothing wrong with the "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome. I know plenty of friends who went to medical school because their parents were doctors, or it's the "Asian thing" to do, and they turned out to be decent doctors. Same for lawyers, accountants and gardners; a lot of "me too" happening outside of the startup world. Unlike 30 years ago, many more people want to go into technology because it's hip to be in a startup - hell, thanks to popular cinema (The Social Network) and mainstream technology (iOS/Android) geekie hobbies are now cool. People got mocked for playing with their Timex Sinclair in the early '80s, whereas today I have to sign up early in order to reserve my son a spot in the mobile game development bootcamp. Times are a changing, and the OP sounds like the indie college guy who's resentful that his secret band is now being followed by everybody. Other "me too" activities: marriage, children, golf, smoking, religion, tantric sex... sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. All a part of life.